For
debirlfan From
kleenexcow/
word_play_sam Title: Greater Good
Fandom: Castle
Rating: PG-13 for blood
Author's Notes: Sorry! I wish I could have crossed Boston Legal or SGA over for you, but I am not familiar. Also, I decided to avoid any Castle/Beckett relationship spoilers and go super gen. But I hope you enjoy this! :)
She'd killed men before, of course. She didn't relish it, but she had a duty, for the greater good.
Nothing about that had changed, of course.
But...Ryan was different. Ryan.
Everyone said they weren't like us anymore. Everyone knew that.
But it was hard to believe it, when Ryan was still so aware, still so human. For now, at least.
"Shoot me," he pled. "Javier, please." But Esposito wouldn't meet anyone's eyes.
So Kate raised her gun.
"It wasn't my gun that killed him," she said, finally breaking the silence the crack of her gunshot had plunged them into. "He'd been dead for minutes, since the bite."
But her words sounded hollow, even to her.
It was Castle who picked them up and helped them run away.
***
It was hard to remember how it all started. Not that the memories were challenging to recall. Just the opposite, in fact. It was less than a week ago, but she knew they'd always be burned into her brain.
It's just-it was painful to remember how foolish they'd been, how naïve.
"Do you know why they put locks on funeral homes?" Castle asked. Kate was kneeling, examining a bloody footprint.
"To keep drug addicts from stealing embalming fluid," she replied absently and stood. "This footprint didn't belong to our vic. Too small." She motioned to the photographer.
"No," Castle replied. "It's because people are dying to get in!" She wasn't going to crack for him, so he looked over to the vic, the funeral home director. The facial tissue a mess, bite marks. "So what are we thinking? Zombies? I'm definitely thinking zombies."
"Not today, Castle," Lanie said as she joined them from behind, a certain lightness markedly absent.
Kate noticed for the first time the striking resemblances this room bore to their own morgue. Castle must have, too, for he softened. "I'm sorry, Lanie," he said. "Did you know him?"
"No," she replied. "But it could have been any of the people I do."
"Guys," Ryan said, interrupting them. "You're gonna want to check this out."
***
"Still betting zombies, by the way," Castle said.
Kate stared at the pieces, the photos, the notes, trying to put it all together. This case just wasn't making any sense. Not that they ever did, really, but this one especially. They ex-wife was the closest anyone could find to a suspect, but they'd parted on good terms and even she thought he was a swell guy.
Besides, her alibi was ironclad.
No weapon, so nothing for them to trace. No clues besides some bloody footprints. Nothing stolen, even, besides one missing-
"I got medical files on the missing body," Esposito said, waving a manila folder. That what they were calling it-the body. Missing girl would be too personal, would imply that they were looking for someone alive, someone with a deadline. She was a corpse.
"And?" Kate asked.
"Get this. She was brought into City West two days ago with what she claimed were animal bites."
"Zombie bites," Castle corrected.
Esposito ignored him. "There wasn't a lot of rush because the bites weren't bad enough to be considered life-threatening. But before animal control could come in to question her, she suddenly died.
Infection."
"Zombie infection."
"So, what? Maybe this is some kind of rabies infection? She got bit by a sick animal, it made her sick, and she attacked our vic and ran off?"
"But that timeline doesn't work. She was declared dead long before she got to the funeral home."
"Guys," Castle said, barely able to contain himself. "You are talking about the definition of zombies!"
"Castle," she said. "Lay off. Esposito, are there pictures in there?"
"You don't want to see them," he said. "It's gross."
"Get them down to Lanie. I want her to compare those bites against the ones on our vic."
They were barely back to the murder board when Esposito hung up the phone. "She's not answering," he said.
"Maybe she knew it was you," Castle replied, snatching the phone.
"Cold, bro. Real cold," Esposito replied, scowling, but Castle was frowning at the phone. He waited, then hung up.
"Maybe something's wrong," Castle said.
"Fine," Kate replied. "Let's go down there."
***
She'd regret it:
The dead look in Lanie's eyes, the blood smeared around her face as she looked up from the cadaver she'd been chewing on, her bloody handprint on the observation glass.
That was the moment it all became real. The image she would never, ever be able to forget.
Kate looked at Castle.
He didn't make another zombie joke.
There would never be such a thing as another zombie joke.
***
Lanie, the vic, they were contained.
(To say they were contained "easily" leaves out so much. )
But The Body was still on the streets somewhere.
"Alexis!" Castle shouted on his phone as they ran up the stairs. It didn't seem right, to take an elevator in an emergency, lack of fire or no. "Where are you?"
But he didn't seem satisfied with the answer, shaking his phone as if that were the answer to his technological woes.
"I can't hear-" he shouted. "Alexis!" He hung the phone up, his eyes wide, in just about a deeper panic than Kate had ever seen him. "I'm getting out of here," he said. "You two can come with me if you want."
***
Outside, the outbreak was spreading like wildfire. They hadn't even managed to make their way onto the subway before it became too dangerous, and it was a mere stroke of luck that they found Ryan, with L.T. and a couple other uniforms.
They had a duty, a great good to serve and protect, and those first few days were hard fought. Carving out safe zones. Rescuing people who'd been trapped. Even some field dressing. All the time they kept pushing onward, kept hoping, kept fighting, but-
***
Kate didn't know what the status of the world outside of Manhattan was. And, she realized, she didn't particularly care.
"Come on," Castle said, Ryan's body cooling behind them. "I don't think we're far from Alexis."
Kate hoped, for his sake, it wasn't too late.
They took off at a run.
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